2005 May Be Warmest Year Ever: “In the high Arctic, deep in the Atlantic, on Africa’s sunbaked plains, climate scientists are seeing change unfold before their eyes. In the global councils of power, however, change in climate policy is coming only slowly.

In Geneva last week, the World Meteorological Organization reported that 2005 thus far is the second warmest year on record, extending a trend climatologists attribute at least partly to heat-trapping ‘greenhouse gases’ accumulating in the atmosphere. In New York, NASA’s Goddard Institute projected that 2005 will surpass 1998 to end as the hottest year globally in the 125 years since reliable records have been kept. It said warming has accelerated and is now boosting the mercury every decade by more than 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit.” (Wired News)

Polar bears drown as ice shelf melts: “Scientists have for the first time found evidence that polar bears are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf.

The researchers were startled to find bears having to swim up to 60 miles across open sea to find food. They are being forced into the long voyages because the ice floes from which they feed are melting, becoming smaller and drifting farther (apart.” Sunday Timesof London)